AppGrid: TimeSeries View
An Excel-like view that is ideal for viewing time series data
An Excel-like view that is ideal for viewing time series data
Many companies use Excel or similar for managing their forecasts and budgets. Excel allows users to create and visualize their time series data in a way that is intuitive and efficient. The purpose of the AppGrid TimeSeries view is to allow users to quickly create, view and edit time series data. The AppGrid time series view can be used for many types of time-series data including shipping and order records, market prices, interest rates, etc.
Specifically, in the time series view records are arranged in columns and attributes are displayed in rows. Usually, the records are ordered by a date field (ex: budget month) in ascending order. In a budget or forecast, the values for a given attribute (for example: heating costs) sometimes follow a seasonal trend. When we are looking at heating costs, we can clearly see the change in value over time as a result of the attribute being a row value.
We can view time series data in the main view, or in a master/detail relationship displayed in a subview. In the image above, we are looking at budget items for the 2025 Master Budget displayed in the main grid.
Companies who use Salesforce don't manage their time series data in the Salesforce app, as it does not provide the same type of intuitive view as Excel or the like. Fortunately, AppGrid does provide this type of view and makes it very easy and fast to migrate this critical business data to Salesforce using our import wizard.
The other challenge is related to creating new time-series data. Imagine a budget with 200 items. Creating a new budget using a Salesforce list view would involve 200 transactions, and you would have no context to inform your choice of values when creating each record. Very unintuitive and labor intensive.
The AppGrid time series view works like Excel. You have the ability to enter all of the data for a budget or forecast in a single transaction, and you can utilize AppGrid functions like drag/copy to quickly enter values for a given attribute or clone records if desired. When editing time series data, we can utilize the mass-editing feature of the AppGrid time series view to make many changes at once.
Similar to the grid view, we can create and apply row and column styles to visualize our data and highlight records of interest.
Our advanced filter wizard enables you to create complex multi-column expressions (using AND/OR and group logic) that allow you to filter the time series grid to only show records of interest.
Budgets and forecasts are critical and sensitive enterprise data that should not be living in Excel documents. This data belongs in Salesforce with your other enterprise data.
Let's take a tour of the time series view features and provide a detailed understanding of how to use the app.
Table of Contents
Overview
The timeSeries grid transposes AppGrid records…rows (records) become columns and columns become rows. The order of the transposed rows is defined by the order of the selected view columns. AppGrid will automatically sort the transposed columns by the selected transposed column.
Selecting the transpose column
You can choose what column is transposed by selecting a field from the transposed column dropdown in the toolbar. For time series data, usually we will want to select a date field but this is not required. The first row in the transposed data are the values for the transposed column.
Adding records
Click the add record button in the grid toolbar to create a new record. A form is displayed to enter the new record values. If adding a child relation record, the parentId lookup value will be automatically set. Any default values defined for the SObject will also be set. Once saved, the transposed data will be recomputed and the grid results updated. Note: the record will only be visible in the transposed grid if I meets the selected query criteria.
Editing records
Editing records can be done in-line or via a form. Click the edit button in the column header . A form is displayed to edit the record values. Once saved, the transposed data will be recomputed and the grid results updated.
Similar to Excel, you can use the drag/fill feature of AppGrid to edit a property value across many records at once. Select an editable cell in the timer series grid and you will see the drag icon in the lower right part of the cell. Click and drag the icon horizontally to copy the selected cell value to the adjacent cells.
Cloning records
For the record you wish to clone, click the edit button in the column header . A form is displayed to edit the record values. Change any values required for the new record. Click the Clone button. Once saved, the transposed data will be recomputed and the grid results updated. Note: the record will only be visible in the transposed grid if I meets the selected query criteria.
Deleting records
Select one or more records to delete by clicking the column checkbox(s). Click the delete record button in the grid toolbar . A delete confirmation is displayed. When confirmed, the records will be deleted and the grid results updated. If any records fail to delete, an error icon will be displayed in the column header. Hover over the error indicator to see the error message.
Finding records
Type a value into the find textbox in the grid toolbar. All grid cells will be searched for a matching value and the grid records will be filtered to only show those rows with a matching value. To clear the find expression, click the cancel button next to the find text box.
Sorting records
To sort timeSeries grid records, click on a property name. The records will be sorted in ascending order. Click again to sort the records in descending order. A third click will remove the sort. To sort by additional columns, hold the shift key and click on another column.
Mass editing
Similar to the grid view, we can mass edit time series data. We can mass-edit selected cells or all record values. To mass-edit selected cells, make a selection and right-click on any selected cell. In the menu, select 'Mass Edit'. To mass-edit all record values for a given property, right-click on a property name and select 'Mass Edit'.
Using row & column styles
Similar to the grid view, we can apply row and column styles to the time series grid. Click the format styles button in the toolbar to open the styles panel.
Styles are defined in relation to the selected view - ie: each view has it's own style definitions. In the image above, we are viewing budget item data and the selected view is named 'Default View'. Note: styles are shared with the grid view, so changing the style when viewing the timeSeries grid will update the grid view style.
In the image above, we have a row style that is checking for any budget items that are not approved. Given that records are displayed as columns in the timeSeries view, we see that the record with a budget date of February 1, 2025 is highlighted as matching the rule.
Now let's take a look at column styles.
We have 3 column styles defined that are flagging budget values that exceed our business policies. The values are highlighted in magenta, orange and yellow. The AppGrid row and column styling feature turns data into information, which allows users to quickly see records that require further investigation.
Creating and applying styles for rows and columns is similar. Select either the column or row styles tab. In the image above, we can toggle the display of any given row style by clicking the checkbox. You can select (apply) all styles by clicking the Select All button, or de-select all styles by clicking the Clear All button.
To edit a style, click the edit button. The format row (or format column) wizard will open that provides an easy way for you to edit the style. Let's take a look at the style wizard. Enter a name and description for the style.
Click the Scope tab. The scope determines what columns the style rule will be applied to. We can either select one or more columns or select the data type of the column.
Click the Condition tab to define the expression that will evaluate the record values to determine whether or not to apply the style. Note: the expression builder allows creating complex multi-column expressions using AND/OR/NOT and grouping logic.
Click the Style tab to define the formatting of the style.
Click the Settings tab to define additional properties of the style.
Click the Settings tab to define additional properties of the style.
To delete a style, click the delete button in the column styles panel.
To create a style, click the Add button in the column styles panel. The format row (or format column) wizard will open that provides an easy way for you to create the style expression.
Using advanced multi-column filters
The AppGrid timeSeries view provides the ability to create and apply multi-column filter expressions that are more powerful than what can be achieved with regular column filters. Regular column filters are ANDed together when evaluated. Advanced column filters allow use of AND/OR and group logic when creating filter expressions. Note: filter expressions are created in relation to the selected view.
To open the advanced filter wizard, click the Enable Advanced Filter button in the grid toolbar. The advanced filter will be displayed below the column headers. There are 2 ways to create the filter expressions 1) click into the filter box and enter the filter expression or 2) click the Builder button. For most users, we recommend using the Builder as it provides a graphical UI that makes it very easy to create filter expressions.
The advanced filter builder allows complex expressions to be created that includes group clauses, as shown in the image below. There is no limit to the depth of the expressions that can be created.
Click Apply to immediately load the filter expression in the grid. Click Clear to remove the current expression from the filter builder. The Save button will be shown if editing an existing filter. Clicking Save will update the existing filter with the new expression. The SaveAs button will create a new filter. Clicking Delete will delete the expression.
You can also load an existing filter by selecting it from the filter dropdown.
After saving the filter, the grid will apply the new filter. The filter logic will be displayed in the filter bar. When a filter is active, a filter icon will be displayed in green. The net result of applying a filter in the timeSeries view is a reduction in the number of columns as each record is displayed in a column.
Selecting views
The selected view determines which columns are displayed (as transposed grid rows) and their respective order.
Selecting queries
The selected query determines which rows are displayed (as transposed grid columns). The time series grid will order the columns based on the transposed column values.
Importing Excel data - creating the import file
AppGrid can import transposed data from an Excel file. Note: the AppGrid wizard is not designed to import list data. There are many data import products that can be used for this purpose.
The AppGrid import wizard is designed to import new records only. Updating existing records is not supported.
It is important that the file to be imported has a header row defined. Make sure that the header row contains the values for the transposed column you will be using. In the example below, we are planning to use the Account SLAExpirationDate field so we have date values in the header row.
The first column in each record contains the name of the field in the SObject record. Note: it is possible to define the OwnerId value when importing records. To reduce the potential for import errors, take care that the values in the file to be imported are appropriate for each column type.
Standard Apex validation will occur when the records are imported, including checks for required fields, etc.
See the image below for an example of how this file should be created.
Importing records
AppGrid provides an import wizard that makes it easy to import Excel data into AppGrid. Click the import button in the toolbar to open the import wizard. The first step is to enter the object you want to import data into. In this example we will use Account. Select the column that will be used to tranpose the data.
Click next. Choose the file that contains the data to be imported. Review the detected header row information. This should match the data in your import file. If the data was imported correctly, you should see some sample records displayed.
Click next. The wizard will attempt to match the names of the columns in the import file with the field names of the selected object. Make sure each column has a matched value. If not, select the field from the column selector.
Click next. The preview grid will be displayed. If necessary, you can edit any record values as required. Click the next button to save the records. If successful, the transposed grid will be updated to reflect the new records if the selected query matches any of the new data.
Exporting records
Click the More Actions menu button to open the export wizard. Select the desired export type and then click the download button.
Switching grid view type
When viewing a timeSeriesView, click the grid type button in the toolbar to switch back to the grid view.